Things That Cannot Be Fought
by Dr. Breifs Cat
Summary: And then they found what they needed to make them happy.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: For those who do not know the drill, 'Naruto' is owned by Masashi Kishimoto.  All related characters, events and situations, yeah, you get the drill.

Author Notes: It always slightly bothered me that _The Uchiha Restoration_ never mentioned how Sasuke freed himself from Orochimaru.  There are some vague undertones that prevent this from being a prelude, but all the same, I needed to write something of the extent.  (As far as canon goes, I'm a bit concerned that he won't live to see the end of the series, but being that I'm a fan of Sasuke, I won't write about that.)

**Things That Cannot Be Fought**

The end came when he saw the blood.  

Five against three.

The five, young ninja who sough Orochimaru.  They were powerful and talented, but they were the sort for whom the power and talent they possessed were not enough.  He could give them more.  He tore them from their homes and duties with the promise of more power, more techniques.  What he asked in return, they were willing to give.  What they would give him had they never been cursed with his seal was another matter entirely and one none of them ever cared to dwell on.  They knew where their loyalties lay.  

The three, an incomplete team.  Being incomplete, they were not a true team any longer and had not been for some months.  That they happened to stumble upon each other at this moment, on this day was a coincidence and nothing more.  They all had their own concerns in the unstable world their little village had become.  At the heart of their struggles was a need to protect one another, but the surrounding missions and training kept them separated.

One of the three faced one of the five and fought.  They had fought each other before, but this time both suspected it would be the last time they did so.  Only the winners of this accidental sortie would walk away alive. 

One was fueled by hatred, a blind and all encompassing hatred that he would throw upon anyone, not caring who it wounded, who it killed.  He was quite sure it would be the end of his foolish former teammate.  Once upon a time, he had hated that boy for who he was.  Cheerful, confidant, but weak.  Somehow, his eyes held more promise than a prestigious genius.  Oh, how the genius hated him.  And yet, for whatever reason, true strength, bravado, he didn't know, in one moment, the genius changed and loved the other dearly.  Would give his life without a thought so that his teammate could go on.

But to this boy's mind, twisted and hate fueled that it was, it was the worst thing to ever happen to him.  To look at someone like an equal, like a friend, like a brother—it couldn't be done.  It would change him and stand in his way.

Uchiha Sasuke was actually rather pleased with the strength-seeking person that he was.

His opponent was fueled by betrayal.  He lived his life alone until three others had been assigned to his side.  It was the happiest he'd ever been.  Those three accepted him and stood by him and soon others started to accept him as well.  He wasn't a lone boy with a distant dream anymore.  He had a team and a mentor, THREE!, and so many friends.  That one walked away was enough to shatter everything.

So Uzumaki Naruto fought Uchiha Sasuke with all his might.

Sasuke led a team of four servants of Orochimaru.  Currently, that team was occupied in a four against one battle with Hatake Kakashi.  They were greatly surprised that they were losing.  All the power they possessed should have ended this battle before it begun, they thought.  Had their leader glanced away from his fight with Naruto to notice his new team's plight, he would have not been surprised.

At all.

And Kakashi hadn't even unveiled his Sharingan.  (Sasuke, of course, had gone into this battle with red eyes.)

In the midst of flailing limbs and thrown shuriken, one of the eight was still unoccupied.  Despite her near-perfect chakra control and better brain, Haruno Sakura was not exactly what one would call skilled at fighting.  This battle was far out of her league and staying out of it was her only hope to not become a hindrance to Naruto or Kakashi.  Sasuke as her enemy did little to improve her fighting ability.

She was unfortunately not below the radar for Sasuke's Sound Nin horde.  One of those fighting her mentor had managed to slip away from Kakashi and attack the prepared, yet woefully inadequate kunoichi.

She screamed.

She bled.

Naruto recognized the sound of her voice, and though still locked in battle with Sasuke, was able to scream "Sakura-chan!" and redouble his efforts.  The cry of his opponent did what the cry of the girl had not; guide Sasuke's eyes to her.  

The end came when he saw the blood.  

Black swirls had dominated his body for most of the fight, but suddenly there were more.  His skin was barely visible between the marks, the whites of his eyes, not at all.

Before Naruto could fully comprehend that Sasuke had abandoned him again, the four Sound Nin were dead.  He stared, red chakra, adrenaline and disbelief making him shake.  Kakashi seemed more or less unphased as he surveyed the bodies.  They had been teenagers who wandered down a wrong path, but had probably still held salvageable hearts.  Their deaths had been hasty and sloppy.  He sorely doubted any of them saw what hit them.

Sakura, her visage bloody and tear-streaked, trembled as she stared up from a crouch at the boy who did this.  Though he said nothing, her own words echoed in her ears.

_I'd kill for you!_

The black swirls faded as he collapsed and she could do nothing but catch him.


	2. Chapter One

Disclaimers: Same as before

Author Notes: _Things was originally supposed to be a vague one-shot with a situation similar to episode 34 of the anime (don't know when in the manga that was), with perhaps a bit more at stake.  The story has since decided that it does not want to be a one shot and well, who am I to say no?_

**Things That Cannot Be Fought**

                Lying limp in a hospital bed was something he had done innumerable times before.  His head was spinning and the rest of his body felt rather numb, so it was by intuition that he knew where he was.  He had a vague memory of events leading up to his current position.

                Uchiha Sasuke was not pleased at all to find himself back in Konoha, though he had to admit that it really couldn't have happened any other way.  He was trained to be a ninja of the Leaf; he was tied down to this place.  The course of his life would always force him back.

As full consciousness returned to him, he tried vainly to make out what the strange buzzing noise he heard was, but sadly, it seemed as though his senses were not yet up to the task.  Sasuke's admittedly spotty memory of the last time he had been in his right mind did not include whatever had been so taxing on his facilities.  He was quite sure he'd never been in this state before, never dragged down to quite this level of immobility before.  His blood was right for the Sharingan; no amount of usage would ever do to him what a day of fighting with it would do to Kakashi.  The curse seal, which always a bit of a wild card in that area, had gotten easier to control under Orochimaru.  He always suspected it was engineered that way on purpose, but at the same time, never gave a shit.

This buzzing was interesting though, as it varied in pitch and tone.  It was almost as though someone, or a number of some ones, was speaking to him from very far away.  He couldn't make out the words or recognize the voices, only acknowledge that there was a sound.

Sasuke allowed his eyes, which were only half-opened anyway, to drift shut.  It didn't much matter to him what these people were saying.  Given his current alliance, there was a very fair chance it concerned him and possibly his fate, but whatever decision they came to was of no consequence.  The moment he was able to, he would leave the Hidden Village again.  There hadn't been an ANBU yet who could find him if he wished to remain hidden and he sorely doubted there was one who could kill him.

A good portion of that was also probably Orochimaru's doing, but Sasuke was no fool in that area.  The Snake Master had a vested interest in the Uchiha Survivor and ANBU disposal was just one of the perks of such.

A new tone had joined the buzzing; higher-pitched and faster.  If Sasuke had to guess, he would have supposed another party had entered the conversation and turned it into an argument.  They could argue over him as much as they wanted, nothing said would matter in the long run.  It was only a matter of time before he was gone.    

Abruptly, the buzzing stopped, replaced by a creak and a slam.  The voices had come from outside of his room, Sasuke reasoned, but now one of the speakers had entered.  He didn't bother opening his eyes.  He could hear various scrapings and shufflings as the person wandered around his room.  There was a swish as the drapes opened, a muffled crinkle as a bouquet was set on his bedside table and the groan of the bedsprings as the visitor crowded his personal space by sitting on the edge of his bed and placing a damp cloth on his forehead.   

That done, the intruder seemed at a loss of what to do next.  Aside from the steady beeping of the monitors, the room was silent.  The people on the other side of the door had ceased their conversation and the visitor had done everything possible to make the room more cheerful.  

He hadn't opened his eyes nor could he sense a familiar chakra, but Sasuke had still been going on the assumption that his guest was Sakura.  Undoubtedly, ANBU guarded his door and made a fuss about her going in.  Much like there wasn't an ANBU alive that could catch him, Sasuke was skeptical that there was one alive who could stop that girl from taking care of him once she got the idea in her head that he needed to be pampered.

Minutes stretched by, tallied by the continuous beeping of the machinery.  He knew full well that not opening his eyes wouldn't make her leave, but at least if she thought he wasn't conscious, she wouldn't try to hug him or talk to him.  

Tears were another matter entirely, (Sasuke brushed that he hadn't seen that coming off as being concussed), so when she began to cry, he forced his eyelids to flutter open.  Sure enough, it was the pink-haired kunoichi who sat next to him, her face in her palms and shoulders shaking as she sobbed.  Layers of white gauze and medical tape were wrapped around her upper left arm in a thick bandage.

Sasuke remembered that cut.  It was a fairly deep gash that bled profusely.

And led to a slaughter.

Funny how he didn't regret killing any of those Sound Ninja.

His throat wasn't in much better shape than the rest of him, it seemed.  "Sa..ku..ra.." came out very hoarse, but it was enough to stop her sobbing, jump from his side and whirl around to face him.

"Sasuke-kun!"  She wiped furiously at her eyes but it did little good as another sort of tear starting trailing down her cheeks.  These were silent, relieved tears, joy that he was awake and possibly out of the woods.  The curse-seal wasn't going to kill him.  Sasuke's fate was in his own hands again.  "What happened?  Why did you kill those Sound Ninja?  Are you going to leave Orochimaru?"  Sakura batted at her eyes again.  "Oh, no," She finally calmed down in her joy enough that his condition sank in, "you shouldn't try to speak yet."

Sakura sat next to him on the bed again, and laid her hand on the washcloth, testing its temperature and moistness.  She sighed.  "There are two ANBU outside your door and two more hiding somewhere outside the window.  You'll have to do a lot of healing before you could get past any of them, so don't leave."  Her head drooped.  "They have orders to kill you if you try."  More eye-wiping.  "We probably shouldn't have brought you back here after you passed out, but we just didn't know what else to do.  Kakashi-sensei said that the Hunters won't kill a missing nin who returns of his own free will, so don't tell anyone we brought you back."  Sakura's shoulders began shaking again.  "So please, just _stay_!"

Sasuke tried to speak, coughed, and began again.  "You know I can't do that."

"You'll never get revenge if you get yourself killed first."  

Fighting back against that particular low blow was beyond him at the moment; speech was difficult.  The only time he had any sort of difficulty with his training or his fighting, with regards to health was in the presence of this original teammates.  The three--and Kakashi--had started bonding the day they passed Kakashi's test.  Kakashi celebrated teamwork and Haku introduced the concept of precious persons to them, but it boiled down to that he cared about them immensely.  Letting any misfortune fall upon them, except at the hands of himself it seemed, would be like the Uchiha Massacre happening all over again.  In Konohakagure, protecting them came first.  Away from them, he could put his family first and embrace avenging the dead.  If Naruto, Kakashi and Sakura couldn't just forget about him, the least they could do was have a bit of faith.  Nothing had killed him yet, a little over-exertion wouldn't do him in.  

"Go away."

Sakura shook her head at the demand.  "Not yet," she replied.  "Naruto's supposed to meet me here.  Jiraiya-sama is having a meeting with Tsunade-sama.  Naruto can get information from Jiraiya-sama pretty easily, or so he says.  Once we know what she plans to do with you, we can decide what we're going to do."  Sakura flashed a triumphant grin, the kind that let her teammates know she was the brains in their little social circle.  Sasuke smirked in return at her challenge.  So they were a few steps ahead; in the long run, it wouldn't matter.           

***

A fully clad but all the same very cute pig-tailed blonde clapped onto Jiraiya the moment heavy wooden doors slammed behind him.  "Toad Master," she pouted, "what did the old woman saaaay?"  This could very well be a cuteness overload, the blonde decided, completely ignoring the fact that one had ever seen Jiraiya come across a girl that was enough to give him the sort of reaction Iruka or Ebisu suffered from the Sexy no Jutsu.  A puff of smoke later there was a twelve-year-old boy glaring up at the old master.  "Well?"

Sadly, Naruto's true form never held the old man's attention like his favorite trick did and he could swear he was being ignored on purpose.

"Hey!"

Jiraiya relinquished enough of his attention to face his ever-demanding protégé.  "Don't speak so crass as a woman, boy."  Naruto groaned.  "Girls speak cutely," he added an unconvincing falsetto, "like this."  Like so many conversations with Jiraiya, Naruto found this one to be going swiftly downhill.

"So what did the old woman say about Sasuke?"

With a sigh, Jiraiya began walking down the cobbled road, leaving the meeting place of official business behind.  Naruto watched for a moment his mentor for a moment, glanced behind him at the building—he thought he sensed something—and took off at a jog to catch up.  Once side by side, he slowed his pace to match the other's.

"Hey, Pervert!"

"A trial," Jiraiya replied.  "Once he's well enough to speak on his own behalf, he'll be tried and punished accordingly."

Naruto grinned.  "That's good, right?  Sasuke can explain…"  His own words and Jiraiya's expression sobered him.  The idea that Sasuke could present a good argument seemed rather unlikely. The idea that he would express remorse was even more far fetched.  Curse seal or not, Sasuke had made his own decision based on his own goals.

"Until then," Jiraiya continued, "a full team of ANBU will be guarding him at all times."

"Don't the assassins have anything better to do?!" Naruto demanded.  "We're at war!  Sasuke can't even move and she's setting ANBU on him?!"

"It's not Sasuke that's the problem, not yet anyway.  It's that Orochimaru wants him."  Jiraiya crouched on his haunches.  "Tsunade and I were Orochimaru's teammates.  We knew him better than anyone but the Third and even he was too idealistic.  He thought Orochimaru would return someday.  You, Kakashi and that girl of yours can't make the same mistake if the Uchiha boy follows Orochimaru's path.

"Tsunade's smart enough to be prepared for the Sound Nin coming after him.  Orochimaru sets his plans in motion, he's not going to wait for us to make any moves.  The Uchiha's important to him.  If we could, we'd have more ANBU guarding him, but there are just too many jobs we need to have high ranking shinobi doing.  We can't afford anymore."

Naruto frowned and screwed his eyes up in typical fox fashion.  "But if its that important, then why not?"

"That old woman just has enough faith in you, boy.  Take care of your friend."

Naruto lit up at his teacher's praise—and the Hokage's—and ran off to tell his teammate_s, what he had learned.  He was a good distance away when the Hokage herself stepped out of whatever illusory shadow she had been hiding in to step beside Jiraiya.  "You indulge him too much," she said fondly._

"I think he would say the opposite.  He never seems to realize he's got my attention."

Tsunade laughed.  "Well maybe if you acted like it…"

Jiraiya's eyes traced the distance Naruto had disappeared into.  "When I met him, he reminded me of myself, but the more I know him, its like watching his father grow up all over again."

**Next—The Trial and the Posing of a Question**            


	3. Chapter Two

Disclaimers:  Nothing's changed since the last chapter.

Author Notes:  Erm, I'll tell you my crappy reasoning later.

**Things That Cannot Be Fought**

                It had been a long time since Iruka fought in the field, having been an academy instructor for years now.  But with the war, the cadets needed to be protected.  Children who had never had even one-on-one training couldn't be expected to fight invaders.

                They called it a field trip.  All the teachers, all the children and as many chuunin and jounin that could be spared for such a task set out into the wilderness, leaving children in various towns across Fire Country.  The idea behind it all was to spread the cadets out thinly in the hopes that other towns would remain relatively unscathed.  This had always been a good strategy during war to protect the future ninja, but given that this particular battle was one man's personal vendetta against Leaf Ninja, Iruka had his doubts.  There was a very real possibility the cadets would be hunted down.

                Because of this, names were changed and families left behind.  There was no record of the activity, not even on booby trapped scrolls.  If and when the children got wind of the conflict being over and Konoha being safe, they would have to return on their own, or not at all.  Iruka hoped when it came to that, there would be kind villagers who would accompany the children.  Of course, there were many students capable of making the journey on their own in peaceful times, but there were also many who were not.

                Iruka always had trouble letting go of his students, but it was far worse when he knew he was letting go too early.  None of them were ready for this.  

                Emotional turmoil of playing with his students' fates aside, Iruka was not sure if he was grateful to see a beloved face or further worried by said face's expression.  Uzumaki Naruto, Iruka's odd mix of favorite student, adopted little brother and surrogate son, was sitting sideways on the swing just out side the academy.  His subdued manner was very similar to when he had failed the exit exam about ten months—or was it a lifetime?—ago.  He raised his head when Iruka approached, causing the chuunin to wonder just how long Naruto had been waiting for him.

                "Iruka-sensei," he mumbled.  Iruka was immediately at the boy's side, wondering what had happened in his absence and placing a comforting hand on his shoulder.  "Wanna know somethin' weird?"  He spoke as though his tongue had suddenly swelled up and became too big for his mouth.

                "Naruto."  He didn't know what else to say.

                "I never thought about my parents.  I jus' knew I didn't have any.  Af'er the thin' with Mizuki, I guess I jus' figured that I never had any at all.  That I was jus' the nine-tailed fox made human.  No mom or dad at all.

                "Tha's better than bein' abandoned, right?"

                Iruka swallowed a lump in his throat.  This conversation was somehow many times more painful than tearing all those children from their homes.  "You weren't abandoned, Naruto."

                The boy snapped.  "I must have been!  Either that or I'm just the fox!  There are no Uzumaki on that rock!"

                The stone in which the names of ninja who had died in defense of Konoha were carved.

                "A couple days ago," Naruto continued, "I was talking to the old pervert—Jiraiya," he classified because he just knew too many old perverts, "an' the old lady was following us."  Naruto swallowed, hard.  "Jiraiya told her I'm like my dad."  He was crying now and Iruka, not being able to bring Naruto's parents back, held him, letting twelve-year-old fists grip his flak vest.  "I should have a dad!  Where's my dad?"

                "Naruto," the elder orphan whispered, "I don't know what I can tell you."

***

The Hidden Leaf Hospital was not an impressive building in and of itself, yet when a young girl sits just outside, with her knees drawn up to her chest and all of her hopes and dreams riding on a single person inside, it can be very intimidating indeed.  Sakura had left her home that morning with every intention of visiting Sasuke, like she'd done everyday since the incident.  As the weeks passed, she was beginning to regret that there were no missions for an inferior kunoichi such as herself in times of war.  The shinobi who were qualified to teach where either fighting or tangled in bureaucracy.  No one wanted their gardens weeded or children babysat or other suitable genin missions.  And it wasn't that Sakura enjoyed the grunt work, she just saw it as a natural stepping stone.  Naruto and Sasuke needed bigger challenges, but she was still lagging far behind.

                Because of this, she understood Sasuke's need to grow stronger to a point.  Sakura needed to grow stronger as well.  She didn't have her eye on a specific battle or a certain far-reaching goal, she just needed to be useful in a fight.  If anyone needed something explained, Sakura was the person to go to, if a genjutsu illusion had been cast, Sakura could see through it and release it.  But battles didn't entail definitions and behind every illusion was an offensive strike.

                Slowly, Sasuke had been recovering.  Sakura knew soon he would try something.  She was just as sure talking to him would do no good.  The only thing that would stop Uchiha Sasuke would be to physically hold him down.  She have the strength to do that or even be a distraction long enough for someone who could to show up.  So she sat, outside the hospital, not daring to go inside and face her inevitable failure.  Sasuke had been right all along, of course.  If she had time to bother him, she should have spent it training.

                _Who was he kidding, anyway?_ She thought angrily.  Her chakra reserve just wasn't all that impressive.  How much good could training really do?

                Somewhere in the back of her mind, a puzzle piece clicked into place and a little voice shouted in delight.  With all the pent-up energy of someone who has just had a wonderful idea but couldn't put the plan into action yet, Sakura half-jogged to Sasuke's room, beaming.  

                The ANBU outside his door never argued with her anymore and after saying a quick hello, she bound into the room with the cheerful "Good morning, Sasuke-kun!"

                His reply of "'Morning," was far less enthusiastic, but Sakura hardly noticed as she went about the room, performing her daily rituals.  Water the flowers, open the drapes, fetch anything he needed…  If he noticed her extra perkiness, he didn't comment.  Sasuke had asked for a few scrolls the day before, which she promptly produced today.  He nodded his thanks, having been able to sit up for the last week and a half.  She'd also been able to dig some formal clothing out of whatever mothballs it had been rotting with for him to wear to his trial, whenever that should be.  Sasuke had been planning on dressing normally, but Sakura had lectured him for quite a while on dressing appropriately and speaking respectfully.  An arrogant, unremorseful attitude would just get him killed faster, she'd said, and neither of them wished to see that happen.

                "Sasuke-kun," she ventured when her self-imposed chores were done, coming to sit on the side of his bed again, "can I get your opinion on something?"

                "Aa," he replied, noting that a request for an opinion was rare, compared to say, a request for a date.

                "I've been thinking…"  That was hardly surprising, unlike her sudden reluctance to talk to him.  "My genjutsu's pretty good…" A modest statement, as it was chuunin level at least.  "And so is my chakra control…" Also modest.  She was at least talking about ninja abilities for once, so she had more of Sasuke's attention than usual.  "But in a battle, I never really know how to apply ninjutsu or genjutsu.  Do you think it would be worth it for me to try focusing on taijutsu?"

                Sasuke was silent for a long moment.  Judging by his expression, Sakura was pleased to see that he appeared to be thinking it over carefully.

                "Focusing on any one Ninja art isn't a good idea," he began, "but you are lacking in taijutsu.  Training in that area until you are equally competent in all three is a place to start now.  You should have been training evenly all along.  You also need to mediate on why ninjutsu is a problem for you.  You could easily do the techniques in the academy, the only thing stopping you from using them in battle is yourself."

                "Thank you, Sasuke-kun," she said sincerely.  He had given her more feedback than she'd hoped for and that voice in her head was cheering loudly.  That he had known what she was capable of in their school days must mean he had been paying attention to her, right?  

                Sakura stood up, smoothing imaginary wrinkles from her dress.  "I was hoping Lee-san could help me with a taijutsu training regime."  Something in her voice changed, as though she was speaking to herself, unaware that Sasuke was still listening.  "He still hasn't healed yet.  Maybe overseeing me would help him take it easy…"

                She was startled by the sudden iron grip on her wrist.  "Don't," Sasuke said darkly, "listen to what he tells you.  No one can become a ninja without genjutsu and ninjutsu." 

                Though both genins were otherwise frozen, their heads turned to the door as it creaked open and the two ANBU guards stepped in.

                "We have been informed," one began in a wooden voice, "that Uchiha-san's audience with the Fifth Hokage will be tomorrow at noon.  Tardiness will not be tolerated."  The two bowed, exited and the door shut behind them, their posts resumed.  Sasuke's grip on Sakura's wrist loosened.  She tugged upwards, catching his hand in her own and giving it a reassuring squeeze. 

***

                The procession that entered Tsunade's audience chamber marched stiffly.  Two ANBU ahead of the Uchiha boy, and two walking behind him.  The normally cheerful room lined with long tables and "Do your best!" banners was almost unrecognizable.  One of the long tables remained, pushed near the back of the room with the Hokage seated in the center, flanked on both sides by empty chairs.  Sasuke was guided by the ANBU to another seat, this one centered between the table and row of benches.  He sat and the ANBU stationed themselves at each corner.

                Though he was facing away from them now, Sasuke had registered the small cluster of spectators when he entered.  He had not seen Kakashi since the day of the attack, which surprised him to some degree as the jounin seemed to take a special interest in the student that most reminded him of himself.  The masked man was there now, seated respectfully at attention, for once on time and not reading pornography.  Sasuke was beginning to the think the message regarding tardiness hadn't been meant for him.

                Sakura was at their teacher's left, twitching and looking generally frantic.  Behind him, Sasuke heard her hiss "Naruto's still not here," and Kakashi's hush.  The bench was large enough to fit one or two more people, Naruto's seat of honor, apparently.

                In the row behind them was a ninja Sasuke recognized from the first portion of the chuunin exam, Morino Ibiki, captain of Konoha's interrogation team.  A handful of others dressed in usual Leaf regalia sparsely populated the other benches.  Sasuke assumed they were subordinates.

                The two chairs on either side of her still unoccupied, the Hokage smiled warmly and leaned forward a tad, resting her chin on interlaced fingers.  "Tell me, Uchiha-san, how do you feel about deals?"

                "A deal?" he echoed.

                "A deal," she confirmed.  "You are now just one of many residents of Konoha who for some reason or another have spent time on the inside of Orochimaru's circle.  We know his abilities, his fears, and why he's started this war.  We have a weapon to use against him and he knows what it is.  What we don't know is the movements and plots of his Sound Ninja.  In exchange for what information you can give us, we can help you sort out Orochimaru's gift."

                "How?" Sasuke demanded, disbelieving.  Kakashi had already tried powerful seals and he would hardly accuse his teacher of holding off a real cure.  

                The smoke of ninja apparition clouded Tsunade for a moment, but when it had cleared, a young woman was sitting cross-legged on the table to the left of the Hokage.  Ibiki groaned.  The woman grinned broadly.

                "Mitarashi Anko," she identified herself, "The only student of Orochimaru."

**Next—Confrontations and ..more Confrontations**


	4. Chapter Three

Disclaimers: See last installment for pertinent information.

****

Things That Cannot Be Fought

Iruka had been past the worrying stage and making his way steadily to frantic when he finally heard a cough and the rustle of sheets. He crossed Naruto's small apartment with a few quick strides to find the boy sitting up in bed, rubbing his eyes. He had cried and screamed himself into exhaustion not too long ago. Rather then report for further duties, Iruka carried Naruto home and let him sleep. He probably was pretty tired, given how thickly he was involved in the war.

Ninja or not, people were still people and Naruto had more personal demons than the one sealed in his navel. He was sitting up in bed, alternately trying to rub or blink the bleariness out of his eyes. His glaze landed on his former teacher when the latter's hand landed affectionately on his head. Iruka regretted the action; it seemed to pull Naruto out of his sleepy haze and back into his miserable one.

"I don't even know my parents' names," he muttered, "or my own birthday."

"October 10th," Iruka replied. 

"How do you know?" the boy asked, clearly not expecting someone else to have the information he'd gone so long without.

"It's not hard to figure out," the other told him. "You were born the day the nine-tailed fox was defeated by the Fourth Hokage. You were probably only a few hours old when the Fourth preformed the seal."

Naruto perked, hopefully. "Do you know my parents' names?" Not a kind question to ask, given that October 10th must have also coincided with the deaths of Iruka's parents and the parents of many of his contemporaries.

"No," Iruka answered truthfully after a moment's pause. "Konoha has forgotten your father's name. I'm not sure it ever knew your mother's."

"Bet the old pervert would know," Naruto mumbled, "if he really did know my dad."

"Then," Iruka smiled, "I guess he's the one you'll have to ask."

***

Though Anko's grin made him want to wince, Sasuke conceded that things were certainly different now. He hadn't imagined that there would be a person in the village who had successfully dealt with Orochimaru, nor that said person could be so cheerful when speaking about it. She was the same sort of person as Naruto, the kind who could speak of terrible things irreverently, not caring that it shouldn't be possible. Where was this woman's grief, her guilt, her pain? The memories of the things she had seen at Orochimaru's side? 

Still smiling, the 'special' jounin,--Sasuke had always thought it would be more efficient to create another level between chuunin and jounin if some of the latter were subordinates of their fellows, but that wouldn't take their specific area of expertise in account--promised to look after Sasuke and pulled him by the arm from the audience hall once they had been dismissed. The ANBU team dispersed and hid themselves among the billboards and rooftops of the cramped little village once the duo they were watching over had left the building. Sasuke had shook Anko off by this time and though she was blabbering about something, shit, she really was like Naruto, he had occupied himself by trying to locate the chakra of the assassination squad. He hadn't done so by the time it occurred to him that these men, he was pretty sure they were all male, were used to S-class missions. The thought sobered him quite a bit; Sasuke refused to think of himself, merely an ex-missing nin, as an S-class criminal like Itachi. 

"I'm just like you," Anko was saying, after giving a life story Sasuke hadn't been listening to. "Someone I looked up to and trusted betrayed me and cast me aside." The woman was exactly like Naruto, Sasuke decided, all her smiles and energy only masked pain. "I wasn't even worth the time it would take him to kill me." 

***

Like any woman of the hidden village of Konoha, Tsunade found Uchiha Sasuke to be a fascinating young man. Not for the same reasons as the young girls, of course. He hardly could have an air of mystery to someone who'd been around enough to see his type many times over and she certainly wasn't looking at prepubescent boys in a way that his appearance would be of any interest. He was the only known survivor of the Uchiha massacre, though not through any merit of his own. He'd learned to use his Sharingan immediately upon its development; in fact, she'd been told that Kakashi suspected Sasuke had possessed some rudimentary aptitude for it before any additional pupils had appeared. But what was most interesting was that Orochimaru wanted the boy and Tsunade couldn't pretend she didn't suspect why. For now, though, she'd decided to leave him in Anko's hands.

Part of being Hokage was loving and protecting every person in the village, but never really having the time to forge a personal relationship with any of the ninja who served the village, and by extension, herself. Thus, she couldn't deal with the Uchiha boy directly. She didn't care for this delegation, especially not after she had put so much work in his teammate Naruto and she knew she would be dealing with the last member of Team Seven soon enough.

She had tried to get as much information on Haruno Sakura before making her decision regarding Sasuke. She already knew Naruto rather well and Tsunade felt taking his teammates into account was a very important part of the judgement process. The information she gained was sparse at best. Sakura had been one of the top students at the academy, though there was some dissention over whether she or Sasuke was the valedictorian of their graduating class. Tsunade had been surprised that someone on the Haruno clan register had not made it to the third portion of the chuunin exam and went over Sakura's records personally.

Real battle experience was conspicuously absent.

Tsunade would definitely be handling this one herself.

The girl in question had stood to leave with her teacher after the trial had been dismissed and seemed rather surprised when Tsunade called for her to stay.

***

Jiraiya had known from experience that certain young men, when seeking attention, could only be avoided for so long. Now and then, he'd make something of a game of it, playing Keep Away from Naruto until the boy managed to corner him. He liked to think of it training in the field of pursuing an objective, but 'I don't feel like dealing with this right now' would probably be a better name. A major battle had been brewing for about twelve years now and the biggest reason it hadn't happened yet was probably his own avoidance. The little princess had him cornered now, not dealing with little boys when he didn't have the patience was perhaps the only perk finally being walled in had. An old man gets accustomed to living his own way and his had been a relatively easy life of 'gentlemanly' pursuits and vague threats. He'd thought if Orochimaru knew he was out there, same as always, it would keep the Snake Master at bay.

It didn't. And now Sarutobi was dead and the Fourth had been gone for so long. There were only two people left who could face a one-on-one winner-take-all battle against this foe and Jiraiya knew who they'd come to first.

He'd been trying to avoid Naruto for about fifteen minutes now, his mind occupied partly by the Uchiha kid's trial, the results of which had been planned out long before anyone let Sasuke in on it, and partly by the other worries that led to his current opinion that an old man deserved a moment's peace. It was bad enough Princess Tsunade would undoubtedly have his head on a platter or some other such euphemism for being pissed as he hadn't made an appearance at said trial, he didn't need some twelve-year-old kid trying to chew him out, either.

But about sixteen minutes into the game, Naruto had cornered him with some two dozen Shadow Replicas and that was the end of that. Jiraiya took some pride in the fact that without his tutelage, Naruto probably wouldn't have improved so much so quickly, but it was a small victory at best. 

The replicas disappeared in twenty some odd puffs of smoke, leaving the real Naruto face to face with his current mentor. He didn't seem angry, but Jiraiya couldn't place exactly what his expression was. Normally, when his eyes were opened as opposed to his usual fox look, he possessed an air of determination. Now his eyes were red-rimmed and bloodshot, something Jiraiya had never seen before. Naruto had been _crying_? 

Even though Naruto had chased him down, the boy didn't seem like he was going to say something anytime soon, so Jiraiya broke the silence, figuring that he didn't know what the kid's problem was after all. "This isn't about your friend, is it?"

Naruto blinked. "Huh?"

"The Uchiha's trial. Probably ended about an hour ago."

Naruto gaped in sheer horror. "That was today?! Sakura-chan's gonna_ kill _me! I promised I'd go, aw, crap!" He was now holding his head and bouncing from foot to foot in some sort of panic dance. "I was waiting for Iruka-sensei to get back from his mission and totally forgot. What do I do, what do I do, what do I do?" He showed no signs of calming down; Jiraiya found in entertaining in an odd sort of way. "Ooh, I bet Sasuke won't let me live it down, he's such a jerk." Naruto launched into his Sasuke-impression, at which time Jiraiya stepped in. This had not been the reason he was tracked down, after all.

"Why were you looking for me, boy?" He asked, trying to sound somewhat intimidating so that Naruto would return to the subject at hand, whatever that was. Even though he didn't take into account that Naruto had never been intimidated by him, he got the boy's attention all the same. Naruto froze mid-word, swallowed hard and asked straight out:

"How did you know my dad?"

"What makes you think I knew him?" Jiraiya parried smoothly.

"The old lady was following us after you were talking to her about Sasuke. You told her I was like my dad after you thought I left."

Jiraiya smiled proudly. "Not many people can detect it when the Hokage is stalking them. You've come a long way."

Naruto didn't register the praise. "How did you know my dad?"

"He was a student of mine when he was a kid; him and two other genin." Jiraiya motioned to the large scroll he had strapped to his back. "You've seen the signature next to yours on the contract." Naruto's jaw dropped. His father's name had been right there and he hadn't even noticed?

"What was his name? What was he like? How did he die?" Naruto seemed determined to rip the scroll off Jiraiya's back in his eagerness to everything about his sire.

Jiraiya shoved Naruto away enough to sling the scroll off his back and unroll it. The name was barely legible next to Naruto's, written in his father's own blood.

"His name was Uzumaki Arashi," now that Jiraiya had said it, Naruto could almost make it out. "He was one of the best shinobi I've ever met. He rode on Gama Bunta's head like it was nothing." It was amazing how easy it was to be proud of someone you'd never met. Naruto had summoned the king of toads, but only when adrenaline and the nine-tailed fox inside him could make his chakra so open to manipulation. But that stubborn toad had accepted his dad as its master.

Never knowing his parents, Naruto had never been able to look up to them. Most children his age had already gone through the phases of worshipping one's parents as perfect and infallible and the goal to aspire to, and then realized parents were people, had faults and could be just generally annoying. Naruto had been an orphan for as long as he could remember; this was the first time in his life that a parent had been something real and tangible to him. He knelt on the ground, hands spread on the unrolled scroll, staring adoringly at his father's name. "I wanna be just like him. No, better! So that he'll be really proud of me." He gave Jiraiya a grin. "He'll brag about me to all the other ghosts!"

"He died fighting the nine-tailed demon fox."

For the second time, Naruto was horror-stricken. "No... No..I didn't kill him." Naruto was sick of crying, he hated crying, he had vowed years ago never to cry again, but the vow didn't mean a thing when the tears wouldn't stop. "No..."

Jiraiya pulled Naruto to his feet by the arms, spun him around to face something they had both stared at many times before.

"He died for this village, to save it and to give the people he loved a better life." They gazed at the monument. "Don't you dare make light of what the Fourth Hokage did for you." 

****

Next--Placeholder and Proper Nutrition 

Author Notes:

1) In chapter three, Iruka said Sasuke had the best grades of their class, though Shonen Jump's stats says Sakura was the valedictorian, i.e., person with the highest grade point average. Slight contradiction, that.

2) The names on Jiraiya's scroll are purposely illegible, though some fans insist one of the names is 'Uzumaki Arashi.' Using this saves me the trouble of thinking up my own name for the Fourth and besides, I like what it means. (Spiraling Storm)


	5. Chapter Four

Disclaimers: See previous installments

****

Things That Cannot Be Fought

Truth be told, Tsunade figured that a large part of it was loneliness. Once she had let Jiraiya and Naruto drag her back to Konoha, as per their deal (just another wager lost), Shizune had been welcomed into the fold as a jounin and dispatched. Which left Tsunade without a protégé or someone to keep her head on straight. 

While she was being honest, it would also do Tsunade well to acknowledge that if she and Jiraiya were good about doing what they were supposed to be, then this whole problem with Orochimaru might have never happened. But they had turned their backs to their teammate's growing problems years ago. Perhaps they had been too much like Sarutobi and his idealism or perhaps they both just liked to run away instead of confronting uncomfortable situations and murderous teammates with large aspirations. 

Since Tsunade couldn't remember ever being an idealist, there was really only one option to choose.

The young genin seemed petrified and trying to hide it. Well, Tsunade already knew the girl had misplaced priorities, but being afraid of an audience with someone on your side in the midst of war seemed a bit absurd. 

"Hokage-sama," Sakura said, mustering up her nerve, "thank you for giving Sasuke-kun another chance." She had never been impressed with the Third Hokage, but she'd also never been face to face with him. Sakura was sure if he'd ever singled her out as the Fifth did, she'd have wanted to throw up just as much. She had yet another growing respect for Naruto--he seemed to be talking to Hokages all the time.

"It was a chance I had to take," Tsunade replied, her chin casually pillowed on one palm. "The Uchiha was the most powerful clan in Konoha before the massacre. Now that there are only two left, we can't afford to let Sasuke's power deflect to the Hidden Sound." She declined to mention Orochimaru's tendency to sacrifice subordinates or what he really wanted the boy for. It was best for Sakura not to know. "Of course, my hunches are usually wrong..." She trailed off and eyed Sakura's expression as horror grew evident on her face. "Which is why we're going with Anko's.

"But, that's not what I want to talk to you about."

"Hokage-sama, what do you want to talk to me about? Whatever it is, there must be someone more qualified than me." 

"This war, my place in it, your teammate's place in it and yours."

***

The old man was speaking, but Naruto only half-heard him. The shock that everyone knew more about him than himself had worn off--other people knew his birthday, other people knew who his father was, other people knew what monster lay dormant within him long before he did--but getting so many answers in such a short period of time made it difficult to listen to what other people wanted to say. What about his questions? What about what he wanted to know?

Iruka, Kakashi, Tsunade, Konohamaru, Sasuke, Sakura, Shikamaru, Kiba, Neji, Hinata, _everyone he'd ever met_...how many of them heard him announce that he would become Hokage, be better than anyone who ever came before, knew who his father had been and had not told him? Had not even thought it worth mentioning? How hard could it be to say 'Must run in the family' or 'You'll have to surpass your dad and HE beat the demon-fox?'

And the demon-fox... Why had his own father put that in him? His father, the Hokage, the village hero, was the one who made him so hated? What could have possessed him to do that to his own child? ..Maybe his father hadn't loved him, but if his father put the fox in him, then he wouldn't hate him for the same reason as everyone else. It just didn't make any _sense._

Naruto was brought back to his senses with a thwap to the head. He looked at Jiraiya in shock--how could he have forgotten Jiraiya was there so easily? He was a ninja, after all. 

"Lost interest so quickly, boy?" 

Jaw half dropped and eyes wide, Naruto shook his head. "I don't understand," he murmured.

"I've been told," Jiraiya began again, because if Naruto hadn't tuned him out, he probably would understand, at least a little bit, "that your father's dying wish was that you would be considered the hero that defeated the demon fox. Though he preformed the sealing jutsu and died to do so, he saw _you_ as the hero of the village."

***

"You may have wondered," Tsunade was saying, "why the Third came out of retirement after the death of the Fourth, rather than appointing a Fifth Hokage then."

Sakura, who had only served as a kunoichi under the Third until his death, had never put much thought into it. That an elderly man would be the village chief seemed to make sense to her. He would be wise and experienced, after all, if not an impressive ninja. It was only after his death that she realized, old or not, he was an amazing ninja. Perhaps he had been Konoha's only chance to defeat Orochimaru...

"There was never really a reason for me to think about it," Sakura admitted. "But the Hokage name is reserved for only the most revered and respected shinobi in the village. He is the hero of the village. I guess after the Fourth died, there were no more heroes."

"No," Tsunade said after a moment. "There are always heroes in a ninja village. Everyone who wears a _hitai-ate_ is a hero or has the potential. Never believe there are no heroes."

"Then why?"

"It's the duty of the Hokage to choose his successor, the one who surpasses him in power and deeds. When the Hokage sees that there someone greater than himself, he steps down to allow the next Hokage to claim his rightful place. The Fourth Hokage chose who he believed should be the Fifth before he died, but he wasn't ready yet." Tsunade's demeanor became distant. "The Third couldn't hold on until the Fifth was ready..."

"But you're the _Fifth_!" 

"No, I'm a placeholder."

***

As all his comrades knew, Hatake Kakashi was the sort of person who was habitually late, which meant said comrades were habitually waiting for him. Habits, like rules, are often broken, so every now and then someone walking the streets of Konoha might see him casually leaning against a building or stand waiting for someone else.

One of those comrades was Uchiha Sasuke. The boy wasn't Kakashi's equal in skill level or technique, but he had the potential to dwarf his teacher, which counted in his book, so long as he didn't get much more of an inflated ego. When that happened, Kakashi would have to take him down a few more pegs, but until then, he respected his student and would do his best to look after him.

When Kakashi looked at Sasuke, he was reminded a bit too much of himself. 

Another of those comrades was Mitarashi Anko. Kakashi didn't know her particularly well himself, but she had quite the reputation among the other jounin, both specialized and otherwise. She was also apparently a good friend of Yuhi Kurenai, who Kakashi was far more familiar with and, well, women always seemed to be gossiping about one another.

After Sasuke's trial, Kakashi made quick time dashing through the village to station himself at the eventual pit stop he was pretty sure he and his new babysitter would be taking. While the Ichiraku noodle bar was the hangout of choice for most kids in Sasuke's generation (with exception of Asuma's team, who had been wrangled into frequenting the Korean barbecue restaurant by Chouji), the older set preferred the tea and sweet shop. 

Kakashi set himself and his favorite reading material up just outside the shop, paying enough attention to the passerby to know when Anko and Sasuke arrived, prepared to buy as many sweets as she could carry and however much she could unload on Sasuke. Before that happened however, Asuma and Kurenai approached and Kakashi just couldn't let the opportunity to get under their skin by. 

"A date?"

Foiled again, Kurenai grimaced. "Just doing a favor for Anko," she replied, steering herself and Asuma into the shop. Asuma's harsh exhale of smoke seemed to just dare Kakashi to ask why he would do a favor for a woman he barely knew, or better yet, why the favor took two jounin to accomplish. Had it been Gai, Kakashi wouldn't have risen to the bait. Ignoring him got a better reaction than any taunt ever would. But just because it was Asuma, Kakashi's visible eye crinkled happily and the mouth behind the mask opened to make a quip--

"REALLY?" An overly cheerful woman in her mid-twenties latched onto Kurenai. "That's so sweet!"

"Anko," Kurenai deadpanned in greeting, now doubly foiled.

Either she was oblivious or devious, Kakashi really couldn't tell, Anko was cheerfully pointing out her favorite variety of dango to Kurenai, half-singing about how she just had the greatest friends ever.

Sasuke, perhaps for the first time, was looking helplessly towards his teacher. 

"How long do I have to put up with this?"

Kakashi laid an affectionate hand on his protégé's shoulder and felt the boy twitch with agitation. Not without sympathy, dealing with Anko and Naruto at once would probably be remarkably difficult for the anti-social adolescent and he intended to pull his team back together the moment he got a green light from the Hokage, Kakashi replied, "Betraying the village does not go unpunished." 

***

Before being dismissed, the Fifth Hokage, or placeholder Hokage or whatever she wanted to call herself, gave Sakura an assignment. The pink-haired girl found it to be a strange one, but it made her stomach flutter with anticipation and her mind completely forget about asking Lee about taijutsu. It also made her worry..the way Tsunade said it made it sound like she was planning on sending Sakura to her death.

_"Do everything you'd regret not doing if you died tomorrow. Then come back to see me." _

To her surprise, Sakura couldn't think of a bigger possible regret than not figuring out who the Third Hokage was waiting for.

****

Next--A red ribbon and a real hero

Next--A red ribbon and a real hero


	6. Chapter Five

Disclaimers: See previous installments

****

Things That Cannot Be Fought

Uchiha Sasuke tried not to let his surprise show, by facial expression, posture or chakra fluctuation, when he rose at dawn to begin his training. It was his first full day out of the hospital, which meant he had a lot of time to make up for. The day before had been nothing short of torture. He understood why the interrogation jounin groaned with Anko appeared at his trial. Had Sasuke known better, he would have groaned as well. She was energetic and cheerful with an alarming sugar addition. That she was in her mid-twenties and a special jounin made her more irritating that Naruto. The woman was an adult. She should know better than to behave like that.

To make things even worse, Anko liked to compare herself to Sasuke. She said they were _the same_. He was smart enough not to doubt that she had some sort of trauma in her past--everyone in the village did; it came with being a ninja--but they clearly dealt with pain differently. Sasuke had no intention to ask Anko if she faked all of her airs to cover up her pain or if she did those things to suppress it, to make it choke on the happiness. Sasuke's pain consumed him and he didn't want anyone thinking otherwise. If he was one for making metaphors--which he wasn't--perhaps he would have compared happiness to a genjutsu. A person casts their happiness like a spell, until an enemy makes the right hand signs to release it. And then there's this place in you that's empty, that used to be filled with love and dreams and the knowledge that you could reach out and touch the people closest to you.

All of this aside, Sasuke was prepared to at least try to fall back into his old routine. Rise at dawn and train until nine o'clock. Then he would go to the bridge and see Naruto and Sakura and wonder how the hell they could be so cheerful when he was exhausted. And they would wait until Kakashi showed up and get their mission. He was looking forward to this. The new Hokage and said how important he was to the war so they were bound to get a good mission.

So, Sasuke awoke at dawn and headed for the training grounds on the Uchiha complex only to be stopped in his tracks by a bored looking Mitarashi Anko leaning in a random door frame. She was absently chewing on the stick of some long devoured dango. Though Sasuke didn't know the man's name off the top of his head, it made him think of Genma at the chuunin exam. He was a special jounin like Anko and always chewing on something...

She sighed. "Damn, you sleep late."

Sasuke paused, unsure of what to make of that.

"You haven't done anything but lie around since you got back and you still manage to sleep. Kakashi rubbing off on you?"

His mouth finally able to work, Sasuke managed a "What the hell are you doing in my house?"

"I live here, too, now." The day before, she'd cooked dinner and was still around somewhere when he went to bed. He'd figured she didn't have to watch over him while he was asleep, but it would be just like Orochimaru to have him dash off in the middle of the night, so it did make sense. Somehow, Sasuke assumed his personal space would be respected. He shouldn't have been surprised. That the Hokage and his gaurd were both women was enough to imply he wouldn't get a moment's peace, but he was also a traitor to the village now...

"It's too much room for just one person, anyway." By the time she said this, Anko had pushed away from the doorframe and was stepping outside.

Sasuke said, "Yeah."

He hated his home.

He followed her outside.

"Kakashi says you have an impressive chakra reserve," Anko said conversationally as she slid into position for a warm-up kata. "I thought," she began going through the motions briskly, still chattering all the way, "that we would work on tapping into that this morning."

"Kakashi is my teacher."

Anko stopped, annoyed. "Not good enough of one. Or did you leave because the education you were receiving was satisfactory?"

"Don't talk like you know me."

"I don't have to. I told you yesterday. We're the same."

"Don't compare yourself to me! I'm not like the people in this village!"

"What makes you different?"

"I'm an avenger. I live because I was chosen to take vengeance for my clan. The people of Konoha live and die for this village. I live for the dead. The village doesn't matter to me."

Anko didn't reply, but drew her right hand to her mouth and bit the thumb hard enough to draw blood. She preformed a few hand seals quickly and slapped her palm against the ground shouting, "Summoning Technique!" In a puff of smoke, a large constrictor snake appeared. It attacked Sasuke with barely a word of command from its apparent master. He could have kept the snake at bay, or so he liked to think, but Sasuke never really got the chance to test his skills against that of an animal ninja. The jounin and the snake coordinated perfectly, locking the boy in the reptile's coiled body. Anko looked at him with disappointment. She offered him no more smiles or lengthy diatribes on random subjects, but just dropped into a seated position on the grass.

"Say," she said softly, "that you have someone who's the worst enemy you could ever have. Not just an opponent or someone who's mission conflicts with yours, but someone who's personally and truly an enemy. No respect, no hope of a truce, no wanting to resolve things peacefully. I think, in that situation, the worst thing you could do is what that enemy wants you to do. Why would you want to play into his hands?"

The boy didn't respond. His only movement was the rising and falling of his chest.

"Midorimaru..you can go now." The snake disappeared out from under him, and Sasuke landed squarely on his rump. Sasuke didn't much feel like looking at Anko at the moment, but she brightened anyway. "I hope you were paying attention to that." Sasuke averted his gaze more, if that was possible. Anko gripped his shoulder and pulled him to his feet. 

"Summoning is a great technique. Activate your Sharingan and I'll show you the signs again."

***

At the bridge that morning, Naruto anticipated Sakura chewing him out for not attending the trial, while Sasuke stood by silently, not caring either way. It had been so long since things had been the way they were supposed to be that for once in his life he couldn't wait for Sakura to smack him some or Sasuke to call him an idiot or a failure or something. He used to hope every morning that today would be the day he would earn their respect, but this day, he was happy with just their presence. Things were finally going to be right again.

More than that, he couldn't wait to tell them all he had learned about his family. He didn't know everything, but he did know more than he ever dreamed of. It was a shame Konohamaru had evacuated with the other cadets. Honored grandson? Naruto could soooo top that.

Sakura arrived a bit later than usual, but still before there was any sign of Sasuke. She was walking slowly with a preoccupied look on her face. She obviously didn't even know he was there, because when he shouted "Good morning, Sakura-chan!" she jumped, surprised. Naruto barely registered it, running toward her at full speed. "Hey, hey! Guess what, guess what!" Sakura didn't reply, but looked a bit quizzical. 

"I," Naruto said, beginning his declaration because he just couldn't wait for Sasuke or Kakashi, "have a _dad_." He said it as thought having a predecessor was a great accomplishment. 

Sakura was listening, at least. "You do not, you liar."

Naruto was still grinning ear to ear, despite the cruel response. "Well, he's dead."

"Oh." She wasn't going to dispute that. "Do you have a mom?"

Naruto closed his eyes in concentration and thought for a moment. "I dunno. I guess so."

"Well, if you've got a dad, you have to have a mom," Sakura pointed out. "They go together." She illustrated her point by lacing her fingers together and holding her hands up for Naruto to see.

"Yeah...but no one said anything about her." 

"Why didn't you ask?"

"Because my dad," Naruto began, "Is. So. Cool. The pervert master knew him and told me a bunch of stuff and showed me his signature and what he looked like and he could summon Gama Bunta--"

"What?" Naruto ignored her.

"--Andandandandand he was HOKAGE!"

"What?" The high-pitched yelp couldn't be ignored.

"The Fourth Hokage was my dad!" Naruto expected Sakura to deny that, to accuse him of being a liar or an idiot or both. Instead, her mind, so adapted for memorizing, turned back to their academy days and called upon the photograph and biography of the Fourth from an early textbook.

"You look just like him."

An amazed smile spread across Naruto's face. "Really?"

"Yeah. I can't believe I had to be told. Maybe it's because he was always frowning in the pictures in our textbooks. I bet if we found a photo of him smiling, anyone could tell."

"Let's look for one!" Missions and training somehow had left the boy's mind entirely.

"I can't," Sakura said, her eyes focusing on something in the distance. "I just wanted to talk to you and Sasuke-kun before doing something else today."

"You _wanted _to talk to _me_?" 

Sakura smiled at his bewildered tone. Sure, she picked on him and didn't like him the way she liked Sasuke, but she didn't hate him or anything. At least, not anymore. "I had something really important to tell you. I guess its kind of anti-climatic now." She laughed, but it was a nervous, forced sound. The silly things she had to say couldn't compare to Naruto finding his father, even if he was long dead.

"Sakura-chan has something to tell meeeee!" Naruto sang.

"Naruto!"

"Yeah!"

She took a deep breath. "I really respect you. Someday, I want to be like you." Sakura had her pride, though, and turned to leave once her piece had been said. She figured Naruto's jaw must be on the ground by now and grinned to herself. She raised her hand in a wave and continued on her way.

Sakura had assumed she'd see Sasuke at the bridge, too, though she wasn't sure what to say to him. She was trying to do the things she'd regret not doing, but she wasn't sure what she'd regret not telling Sasuke. She'd told him she loved him all ready and he finally seemed to understand that she actually cared about him, even if his response wasn't overwhelmingly positive. She thought about just leaving things as they were, as she'd certainly regret doing something that lowered his esteem of her. Throwing out "I love you"s like she was commenting on the weather was probably a good way to do that. He certainly seemed to hate it when Ino did things like that.

Ino... If anything would be harder than coming clean to Naruto, than it would be making up with Ino. The blonde might just laugh at her or find some other way to be cruel. Or she might be willing to reconcile. Friends probably had crushes on the same people all the time. Just because Sakura wanted to come out of Ino's shadow at something, anything, wasn't really worth the friendship of the first person to be nice to her, was it? She was in Naruto and Sasuke's shadows all the time now and she wouldn't want to give them up. People had different strengths, so every relationship probably had some jealousy. She was jealous that Ino was confidant and pretty and always got what she wanted. Maybe Ino was jealous that Sakura was smart. Or that she was shy. Or that she cried easily, even though she knew that a shinobi wasn't supposed to show her feelings.

By the time Sakura had arrived at the Yamanaka flower shop, she was moving slowly, head hung and feet dragging. Maybe she would be better off not making up with Ino. Maybe she could make a new friend in the time it took for her to walk from the door to the counter. A better friend.

"Ready to graduate to giving a guy something better than a daffodil?" Ino was standing behind the counter, leaning over. "We don't sell dandelions if you want to take a step back."

"I didn't come for a flower," Sakura tried, casting her eyes downward.

"There aren't any other reasons to come to a flower shop," Ino pointed out.

"I want my ribbon back." Ino made no reply, so Sakura continued, with difficulty. "It's not right to just return a gift, so..." Sakura winced and tried again. "I mean, people are friends and rivals all the time, right? It's dumb to just pretend that we're not still really friends, right?" Is this the way things are going to be again, Sakura wondered. Looking to Ino for approval for everything? Or had she grown enough to not need that?

"I-it's up stairs," Ino stammered, referring to the apartment above the store that the Yamanaka family lived in. "Watch the register and I'll go get it." She took her apron off and tossed it to Sakura, who grinned, donned it and stepped behind the counter. Ino disappeared into the back room and Sakura could hear her running up the steps.

Sakura tapped a happy rhyme on the counter. She'd made up with Ino, been honest with Naruto--who's father was the Fourth Hokage!--she was doing pretty good on this no regrets thing. It was a little interesting that both Tsunade and Naruto had spoken to her about the Fourth in such a short span of time. It was weird to think of that long dead man as someone who had a son. He'd probably had a wife and plans for the future that were never realized because of the demon fox. It was depressing to think of it that way. He hadn't gotten the chance to see his chosen successor rise, either. The Fifth talked like they expected him to be Hokage material before long. When she thought about it, there may even be only a few years left to wait. Five years or so...she'd be 17 then, just like the Fourth's son. The way Naruto was improving, he'd probably be really amazing by then. 

Ino came down with the red ribbon to see a very shocked Sakura were she'd left a happy Sakura. "What?"

"Something just occurred to me," Sakura said lightly, waving her hand. Ino held the ribbon out. The other girl accepted it gratefully and pulled her hitai-ate out of her hair. She placed that on the counter and tied the ribbon in its proper place. Ino looked on with an approving expression, while Sakura debated where to put her forehead protector. She couldn't wear them both around her head. Finally, she settled for tying it around her neck. "Forehead for when we won't hold back," Sakura said, "Neck for when we're best friends." Ino smiled and untied her own ninja headband from her waist and fastened it around her neck.

***

"Wha'da'ya waaaant?" the half-asleep Hokage asked, having been poked repeatedly in the shoulder until she awoke. "It's my lunch break, I c'n sleep if I want." Two half-opened eyes found one. "K'kash'?"

"I didn't have an appointment, so I thought coming during a break would work," answered the man who owned the one half-opened eye.

"Yay," the Hokage answered, far from pleased with his idea.

Kakashi bowed, uncomfortably. "I formally request that my team be reformed, Hokage-sama."

"Oh." The Hokage was suddenly far more awake. "Oh. That. Um..." she rustled some of the papers she'd been using as a pillow, looking for something in particular. "No."

"No?" Kakashi echoed. He had only come as a formality, not even finding it necessary. That Konoha's most powerful genin team should be reformed wasn't a question to him. It was war, the village needed the competent ninja in teams that they would be able to work with to the best of their ability.

"If the Uchiha boy comes to you for training, that's fine," Tsunade offered, "but Naruto is better off with Jiraiya and frankly you haven't taught Haruno Sakura a thing."

"You can't take these kids away from me," Kakashi didn't know what he was saying while he was speaking. It just came out. But it was true. Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura were his most important comrades. "They're all I've got."

"Konoha needs them more than you. It's been almost forty years since the last appearance of those who would be legends. Four decades seems about right, doesn't it?" 

****

Next--Snakes and Slugs and Toads


	7. Chapter Six

Disclaimers: See previous installments.

Things That Cannot Be Fought

The hard slapping of feet against floorboards echoed through the ground floor, so neither Kakashi nor Tsunade were caught off guard when the heavy doors were flung open and a kunoichi had to pause to catch her breath. Kakashi sighed inwardly. Sakura hadn't even bothered to run properly, silently with controlled breathing. Tsunade would mark this against his teaching abilities, he figured, even though it was academy curriculum. In a soft, sad voice, he murmured, "Oh, Sakura, why did you have to do that now?"

But the girl, focused on the Hokage, didn't pay attention to her supposed teacher. She gripped one of the doors to steady herself, breathing hard and a little dizzy. She was still in a hurry, it seemed, because she struggled to speak, instead of waiting for her lungs to catch up to her racing heart. Because she had to take a gulp of air every syllable, her questioned came out slow and fragmented, but the meaning came through just fine.

"It's Naruto, isn't it?"

Kakashi wondered if Sakura had figured out the truth behind what happened years ago when the Demon Fox was defeated. Tsunade smiled.

"The Third Hokage was waiting for him. You're waiting for him."

No, it was something else. Still interesting, Kakashi decided.

"The Fourth Hokage knew that his son, Naruto, would have some amazing power and chose him as his successor. But Naruto was just a baby when he died, so the Third came out of retirement until Naruto was an adult."

The only piece of the story missing was the Fox Demon, but she'd made up for it with things even Kakashi hadn't known. He did have the Hidden Leaf's smartest mind on his team. He should have bragged about it more. When some teachers were handed a brilliant student, they made a point to see just how smart the child was. Kakashi would have wondered why he never did that, but he knew. Sakura had an incredible mind, but he'd never seen any indication that she intended to use it for more than memorizing facts. And now, the moment she'd been officially taken away on an account of negligence, she decided to announce the most confidential information about a teammate she'd never paid attention to.

Finished, Sakura used the time to finally catch her breath and stood up straight, whereas as she spoke, she had been hunched over with her hands on her knees for support.

"Did you do what I instructed?" Tsunade asked, pleased with Sakura's ability to figure so much out, wondering what her other sources, if any, were, but most importantly, she had told Sakura to come back at a specified time.

Sakura took a deep breath, not because she needed to for oxygen, but because she needed to to steady herself. She had planned to do other things, like be as honest with Rock Lee as she had with Naruto and still wasn't sure what to do about Sasuke. She just wasn't sure if she'd done everything she'd regret not doing if she died suddenly. Certainly, there were things she wanted to do, things that were important to her, but were they as important as Naruto, Ino and the mystery? After all, while she respected Lee, she barely knew him and as long as Sasuke really knew where she stood, she'd done everything she could.

"Yes," she said, finally, one hand reaching for her red ribbon and the other for her forehead protector, tied around her neck. "If I were to die tomorrow, I would want to have died without a problem left unsolved and for the people precious to me to know how important they are."

Sakura wasn't sure if she should be surprised or not that Tsunade had no more questions for her. She settled for just watching silently like Kakashi while the Hokage found a paper on her desk, signed it and handed it to him. Tsunade smiled warmly at Sakura. "Kakashi has some business with cell seven. Accompany him and return here afterwards."

"Yes, ma'am." The two bowed and exited.

Once outside, they verbally pounced on one another immediately.

"You haven't been to the bridge yet?! Naruto's been waiting since this morning and I bet Sasuke-kun has, too. It's been a long time since we've had a mission, but that's no excuse now that we're back together again."

"I'm not a precious person to you?"

Since Sakura's tirade went on far longer than Kakashi's, it probably would be safe to assume that she hadn't heard his question, but since her complaints were more reflex oriented than though, she had managed to speak to him and register what he said at the same time, though it still took a bit more time to process.

"That's not what I meant earlier, Kakashi-sensei." The girl averted her eyes, ashamed for making her teacher, who had taught her and protected her, think she didn't care about him, and for what she had to admit so often lately. "There are people in my life that I've treated horribly. Because of that, how could they know how much I care about them? I promised myself that I would try to be nicer when I became a genin, but it's not a promise I've kept.

"The Hokage told me to do everything I'd regret not doing if I died tomorrow after Sasuke-kun's trial. I regret that, so I'd regret not making it right."

Kakashi walked along side her staring ahead with his hands in his pockets. "You can't think that way, Sakura. What if they died tomorrow? You'd still have your regrets. You have to correct your mistakes as you make them. You can control if there is a tomorrow for you, but that doesn't mean there will be a tomorrow for the people you love."

"You can protect the people you love," the girl countered. "Watching each others' backs is a part of teamwork, Kakashi-sensei. That's the first thing you taught us."

"Precious people aren't always going to be a position where they can be protected. Even if you are sent on the same mission, as the same team, mistakes can still be made, or ultimatums issued."

"'Kill Naruto,'" she echoed, "'or Sasuke dies.' You told us we may be faced with choices like that someday, but that's not really a choice, is it? In battle, you can't take your opponent's word for anything. You can't just assume someone is honorable. Say I choose to kill Naruto. You could have killed Sasuke anyway, leaving me alone as easy prey. Or I could team-up with Naruto to rescue Sasuke, thus creating a possible outcome where we all come out alive and are able to accomplish the mission."

"But will you be thinking that clearly then?"

"Well," Sakura gave a nervous laugh, "that's the down side."

Kakashi sighed. "I was just thinking how far you'd come, but you really haven't made the smallest step."

The two walked a bit longer in silence and while the pace was comfortable, the atmosphere between them was not.

"Kakashi-sensei?"

"Hm?" His hand strayed to his back pouch, reaching for a volume of _Icha Icha Paradise_. He'd managed to fit all three in there and had read them enough that it never mattered anymore which he pulled out and at what point he opened it. Just having the familiar weight of the book in his hand made difficult things easier and boring things more interesting.

"How come you're always late?" She didn't make a face at the book or try to peek at it, which showed that maybe she'd taken a small step forward after all, at least when it came to dealing with Kakashi.

"I'm never late," he replied, "except for today."

"Well, that's a new one," Sakura muttered.

"Sometimes I want to see how the three of you get along without me keeping the peace, but mostly..." he trailed off. Sakura looked at him expectantly. "...'Sorry I'm late' is the best way to enter a conversation."

It wasn't long afterwards that the two had to enter a conversation, as at the bridge, Naruto was regaling Sasuke and his assigned keeper tales of his father. Not a single member of his audience believed that his stories were true, but Anko at least was entertained. Sasuke half wanted to find out whatever made Naruto so damned dramatic and take it away from him. The other half didn't want to devote that much time to his blonde teammate, so he found himself leaning against the railing of the bridge as he usually did. In passing, he wondered why Sakura wasn't there to punch Naruto in face and get him to shut up.

"Sorry we're late," Kakashi drawled, having appeared before the boys and Anko in his usual puff of smoke. Sakura peeked out from behind him, waved and stuck her tongue out just a little. "The Hokage had a terrible rash and sent us on a desperate mission to recover hypo-allergenic cream." Naruto shuddered violently at the mental picture and neglected to scream 'LIAR!'

"I didn't wait for six hours to be assigned grunt work," Sasuke warned. "Especially not with that idiot blabbering the entire time."

"You liar," Naruto cut in, "you were two hours late and you know it._ I _was the only one on time today." Naruto's self-satisfied posture faltered when no one stepped in to praise him. Typical.

"You were late?" Kakashi questioned, turning to Sasuke. "Care to tell the class why?"

"My morning training took more time than usual," Sasuke replied coolly, not feeling that Kakashi had any right to demand reasons for tardiness from anyone. Kakashi appeared focused on his apparently favorite pupil, though Naruto knew by now that Kakashi's _appearances_ were often deceitful. Anko was watching her charge with a tiny smile. It made sense that she knew the full story of whatever was going on, since she had to be everywhere Sasuke was. Sakura was, of course, hanging on Sasuke's every word with nearly visible hearts floating around her head. Naruto gritted his teeth. _His_ dad was _Hokage_ and still everything was _SasukeSasukeSasuke_. And it wasn't even like Sasuke training was anything new. Sasuke always trained. Naruto was the one with news.

"I was working on a new technique," Sasuke explained, with the same nonchalant attitude, like he mastered new techniques every day.

Damn Sharingan. He probably did.

Beneath his mask, Kakashi was frowning as his last student slipped away. Naruto was better off with Jiraiya, Sakura certainly didn't need him and it looked like Sasuke didn't, either, if he was learning new techniques on his off hours. He turned to Anko. "You have anything to do with this?"

"I might have shown him a few hand signs," she conceded. "Had him sign a contract in blood. You know, the usual." He'd always passed her off as 'Naruto-ish,' seeing only what was the most obvious, but the woman was more perceptive than Kakashi wanted to give her credit for. She read his (mostly) invisible expression, cocked her head and asked, "What?"

"I wanted to teach them all dogs," he replied.

"That ship sailed. The blonde's been doing toads for a while and frankly, snakes suit Uchiha better. He coils and strikes. None of this tracking garbage. If you really need to pass on your trade, I hear Kurenai's kids are trackers, but the one already has a dog..."

Meanwhile, Sakura was looking at both of the boys. "Animals?"

"Summoning," Sasuke supplied. "It's a fairly common to form a bond with a family of animals and summon them at will."

"The old pervert taught me to summon toads months ago," Naruto cut in. "Gama Bunta is the boss toad that I can summon, like my dad."

"That's what you were talking about before," Sakura said to Naruto with a smile. She thought about what she'd told the Hokage for a moment, all the while gazing in Naruto's direction, smiling. He didn't notice that she wasn't seeing him, he was just elated and blushing. It was one of the very few times he was thinking that life was good to him. Unfortunately, Sakura noticed him, the look on his face and punched him out of reflex. So much for being nicer.

"Sasuke-kun, what do you summon?"

Anko, finished arguing with Kakashi, looped her arms around Sasuke's shoulders and said, "He summons little green garden snakes."

Naruto, forgetting all of the tadpoles he summoned, pointed and laughed.

Sakura glowered at Anko, wanting to scream at her for touching Sasuke like that .

Sasuke was generally just not happy with this turn of events.

"If you're all done talking amongst yourselves," Kakashi intervened in a voice that invited no one to point out that he started it, "Cell Seven does have some business."

"About time," Naruto declared, arms behind his head with his elbows in the air and his eyes closed.

"By order of the Hokage, Cell Seven has been disband."

"What?" Naruto cried.

"But we're supposed to remain in our three-man cell for the entire time we're genin," Sakura protested.

Sasuke said nothing and his face remained unreadable.

"That's highly unorthodox," Anko said. "Without a cell, they can't even take the chuunin exam, never mind missions."

Sasuke snorted. "You weren't part of cell with two extra people pulling you down as a genin."

"Orochimaru is also unorthodox," Anko retorted. "You sure as hell should have noticed that when you tried to join him."

"If an 'unorthodox' method makes me stronger, that's all I care about."

"You'll only get as strong as he wants you to be, then he kills you and uses your remains. He teaches for his benefit, not the student's." She looked angry, save for the stream of tears coursing down her cheeks. "My cellmates didn't pass his test to become genin, so he killed them. He had plans for me then and he's got plans for you now. It's my job to teach you to defend yourself."

Sasuke looked away. Naruto looked at his feet. Sakura tried not to sob and failed miserably.

"Sasuke," Kakashi barked, "you are to train under Anko in whatever means of defense against Orochimaru she sees fit. Other methods of learning that leave you within the jurisdiction of Konoha is your choice."

"Naruto," Kakashi continued, "you have been officially assigned to apprentice to Jiraiya."

When he said no more, a puzzled Naruto asked, "What about Sakura-chan?"

"I've got nothing else to teach her." A long moment ticked by. "Cell Seven dismissed."

No one moved.

Nose stuck in his book, Kakashi walked away. For the genin, the departure of their teacher made time pass again.

"Guess I better find the pervert master," Naruto muttered, kicking a stone near his foot. "But hey," he added with forced optimism, "we can still hang out and stuff."

"Yeah," Sakura said softly. "We don't have to be a team to be friends." She sighed. "The Hokage told me to report to her right after this. I sort of wish she'd told me what was going on. It might have been easier if I was expecting it." Even though she'd announced she was leaving, like Naruto, she remained on the bridge.

Anko nudged Sasuke, who had been staring into the water since her outburst. "Let's get some tea." The boy didn't notice her at all.

"You saved my life."

Hearing Sasuke make an admission like that surprised them all, though they didn't know who he was talking to, if it was indeed any of them.

"Thank you, Sakura."

"Huh?" escaped Sakura's lips before she could stop herself.

"If the last battle with the Sound Ninja had gone differently, Orochimaru would have killed me before I became strong enough to avenge my clan. When you got hurt, I defended my comrades without even thinking about it. It's the only reason I'm still alive."

Sakura smiled. "You're welcome, Sasuke-kun."

---

"The three famous incompatible magics are that of the toad, the snake and the snail.

"The toad is faster than the snail.

"The snail cannot be eaten by the snake.

"The snake can eat the toad.

"Therefore, the three maintain a balance, for each defeats and is defeated."

"The legend of the three masters is Konoha lore, passed down throughout all the generations of our village, since it was founded by the First Hokage.

"Every several generations, three ninja of the Hidden Leaf possess a greater mastery over the three arts--Shadow, Body and Illusion--and they are the three masters.

"They bear the titles of Toad, Snake and Snail."

"I, Haruno Sakura, as my partners before me, have signed my allegiance in blood to one of the three magics and have accepted the challenge to be the next master of the Snail."

Next--Silence! The End of the Hidden Sound


	8. Chapter Seven

Disclaimers: Consult previous installments.

**Things That Cannot Be Fought******

No one had ever told him crossing Gaara of the Desert was not a bright thing to do, so when he formulated his plan, Orochimaru decided that, yes, killing the Kazekage had to be done and that no, a sand-wielding demonic boy would not care. Orochimaru was intelligent enough to fear Tsunade, the master, who, in the balance of power, stood above him. He was cunning enough to stay out of the way of Uchiha Itachi, a teenager who did not calculate before he killed, but merely did so when it suited him at the moment, regardless of how it would affect his future. He felt no need for caution around Uzumaki Naruto; the fox demon within him was easy enough to work around because of the seal on his stomach.

Orochimaru had recruited the Hidden in Sand village for the sole purpose of using Gaara of the Desert in his attack against Konoha. He studied this demon's past and present, his ultimate defense and his offense. Orochimaru labored long and hard over the exact placement of Gaara in his plans to best suit him in the long run.

The fatal calculation was tattooed on Gaara's forehead.

* * *

Sakura had finally been the first to leave, only because she knew exactly where she'd be going. Naruto wanted to follow her, to go see the old hag, too, and rip her apart for taking his friends away once he'd gotten them back. It wasn't that he didn't want to train with Jiraiya, learn fantastic new moves that would propel him towards his goal of becoming Hokage and go on important missions for the village that would earn the respect and admiration of the people around him, it was that for once in his life, that wasn't what he wanted the most.

It would be the most wonderful thing in the world to go on some dumb mission where Kakashi-sensei would lounge around reading while he, Sasuke and Sakura did all the work and he would talk non-stop so that the others wouldn't even have a chance to tune him out and they'd be forced to listen to him and notice that he was there. And be happy that he was there and he'd be happy that they were there. And he'd tell them all what he learned about his dad, because even though he'd already told Sakura-chan, Kakashi-sensei and Sasuke hadn't heard yet. Maybe Sakura-chan would bring up his mother again and they could all wonder about what sort of person she'd have been.

It was wishful thinking, of course. Since Sakura already knew, she'd tell him to shut up whenever he paused to take a breath. Kakashi wouldn't listen in the first place. Sasuke wouldn't want to hear about anyone else's family, not after what happened to his.

The world was even taking away his wishes now, Naruto realized. Killing off his parents, locking a demon inside him and making everyone hate him wasn't enough? He wasn't even allowed to think that maybe things would be different after all the lessons they'd learned about being together?

Practically speaking, what this new revelation meant to Naruto was that he would have to find Jiraiya and train even harder than ever before to become Hokage so that they would see that he was someone worth listening to. But Jiraiya, it seemed, wasn't hanging around any of his usual haunts, the bathhouse or the waterfall or even any tall buildings wear he could watch unsuspecting female passerby with a small telescope. Screwing up his eyes in thought, Naruto wondered if Jiraiya was possibly training himself. Naruto had never seen Jiraiya show any indication of seeking a higher level, but it was likely enough that Jiraiya just didn't do such things in front of his pupil.

Not knowing where Jiraiya lived, if he even had a residence in Konoha, or where he would go to train, Naruto did the only reasonable thing that he could think of. It was mid-afternoon and he hadn't eaten anything since dawn, so he headed to the Ichiraku noodle bar. After a few bowls of ramen, he would be refreshed and able to start his search fresh. Perhaps Jiraiya had booked one of the fenced-in training grounds or went somewhere outside the gates of the village.

Evidentially, someone had been counting on Naruto stopping by for a bowl of ramen, because the proprietor, instead of asking for Naruto's order as usual, told him a note had been left for him.

"A note?" Naruto echoed. He received mail, mostly bills and notifications and the occasional no-occasion card from Iruka, but the idea of someone just leaving a message intended for him lying around was foreign. "Give it here, then."

The ramen stand man—Naruto wondered why in all his years of coming to the Ichiraku he'd never bothered to learn the names of any of the workers, just thinking of them as 'old man' and 'big sister'—handed over the note. It was decidedly anti-climatic, Naruto decided, for the first note he'd ever received to look like it was torn off a scroll and folded in half. The white paper even still had a bit of curl in it, so that the two halves didn't lay together flat.

Naruto read it and the sense of abandonment he'd been feeling but hadn't been able to place sharpened painfully.

It said:

_Naruto,_

_I'm leaving Konoha for the time being. Princess Tsunade doesn't know; bet she'll be mad. Don't know when I'll be back._

_Jiraiya_

Naruto's eyes only scanned it once before he curled the note into his fist, his eyes closed and body trembling. He'd never really considered being left by Jiraiya; the old master had come into his life so suddenly and his head was so empty he always figured he wouldn't mind it all that much if Jiraiya disappeared. Now, Naruto realized, in a very short time, he had discovered his true father and lost the only man who had ever treated him like a son.

Naruto wondered what he should do now, but he said "Why didn't he take me with him?"

The old man behind the counter smiled in a reassuring sort of way, "Miso ramen? It's on the house."

* * *

Bent over and panting, hair dripping with sweat, Sakura was relieved to finally see the tiny swirled shell she had worked so long to summon lying idly in the center of the bloody thumbprint she'd left on the ground. Even after the lengths Tsunade had gone to explain the exact art of her summoning skill, it had been hours of hard work before the empty snail shell appeared. Mixed feelings on the matter aside (Sakura wasn't sure whether she should shout in triumph that she'd managed to summon anything or wilt in disappointment over how far she had to go on this newest venture to catch up to Naruto and Sasuke), she couldn't help but feel that now that she'd made some progress, the taming of slugs could only get easier.

Tsunade had spent the hours since she'd explained the technique and brought out the scroll alternating between watching Sakura's progress and reading the reports that had come into the village and preparing new missions. The company was good, though. Whenever Tsunade felt herself wanting to let her thoughts linger over the similar war that had cost her brother and lover their lives, she could wander over to Sakura and focus her energies on teaching. She had to curse circumstance, though. Like the Third had said when she suggested medical specialists, their enemies would not wait. Orochimaru wasn't going to put his vendetta on hold while Sakura ran laps to increase stamina and physical energy or mediated to augment spiritual energy. Training so heavily was drying up her charka reserves and she appeared to be exhausted near a state of collapse. Tsunade half considered healing Sakura physically so that she could continue refreshed, but medical techniques did nothing for the heart; if the girl's soul was tired, there was nothing Tsunade could do.

She wanted to tell Sakura to go home and get some rest, but the more she watched Sakura, the more she didn't think her new student would appreciate it anymore than Naruto. She had the same determination and single-mindedness as Naruto that made Tsunade wonder why Sakura hadn't achieved more, or at least why Kakashi had never made note of it in any of his reports. But unlike Naruto, Sakura was patient. She didn't expect results right away and moved in small steps better than large leaps.

Tsunade wondered where these traits had been before.

Kakashi had never recognized them for what they were.

Sakura knew she had focused them all on the pursuit of a boy rather than on her training.

* * *

He was laying spread eagle on his bed with one of those garden snakes coiled happily on his stomach while a man and a woman discussed something in hushed voices behind a closed door. It was almost like having parents again, Sasuke would have thought, if his mind was not still reeling from the revelations of a few hours ago. All the same, being that the door was made a glass and lead to a terrace which belonged to him, since, after all, he quite clearly didn't have parents, Sasuke had his options.

He could have read their lips. Well, Anko's, at least. Kakashi's profile had a way of never looking like his lips were moving behind his mask, despite the fact that the material was very thin and shouldn't be capable of concealing much of anything.

Or, he could have kicked them out all together. They wouldn't have left without a fight, of course, and they were both jounin, so it would have been a losing fight, but Sasuke had always gotten a measure of satisfaction from attacking. Dwelling on a lose would have at least given him something else to think about. There was even the possibility of either of them using a technique he hadn't seen before.

He could have done either of these things if he cared that Kakashi and Anko were out there, making decisions regarding his future as if either of them had any say in what he did. At the moment, he chose not to acknowledge that they were his teacher and his apparent guardian and instead be angry and frustrated at the world in general and the Hokage in particular. While he was ignoring things, there was also the attempt on his life to conveniently forget, if he could.

Either because he was twelve years old or because he was used to being worshipped, it failed to cross his mind before that afternoon that in return for whatever power Orochimaru gave him, the master of snakes would expect some form of payment. Now that he thought about it, Sasuke realized that Orochimaru approached him because he wanted something from the boy, not because he wanted to give something. It certainly made more sense.

Still, Sasuke had a history of listening to the wrong people, making the wrong decisions. Whether Anko had figured it out herself or had been told by someone else, she had decided it was high time Sasuke started listening to her, regardless of the fact that their paths had only recently come to intersect. She was going to have to explain to him, sooner or later, that what he wanted and what was best for him weren't always going to be the same thing.

* * *

Moving faster than anyone really would have wanted to give him credit for, the ninja master known as Jiraiya had finally set out on a journey which he hoped would take him to Orochimaru's gate. While no where near as idealistic as the Third Hokage had been, Jiraiya still didn't like the idea of fighting Orochimaru to kill. Up until the attack on Konoha, Sarutobi hadn't believed Orochimaru beyond redemption, he probably even hadn't believed it when he struck to kill. True, the deathblow failed, but was that because he was just too old or because he didn't want to make the choice between the life of someone he had been close to and the village he lived to protect? Trapped in the hell reserved only for those who attempted the Fourth's final jutsu, the world would never really know for sure.

But, Jiraiya was not as idealistic and not prone to hesitating out of a higher morality or past connections. He'd avoided a final showdown with his old teammate because he hadn't quite seen it as necessary yet, but battles between the Leaf and the Sound were escalating in number and ferocity. The Princess was both deploying troops to go on the offensive and others to defend the village, determined not to be caught unaware like her teacher had. Tsunade was the least idealistic of them all, and more often then not believed the absolute worst of people, unless you started spouting the same sort of nonsense the Infallible Ones, Nawaki and Dan, had. She'd had the opportunity to kill Orochimaru all ready, but she was so enraged that she thought more about inflicting pain than ending the conflict at the time, and the snake-slime was rescued by his medical ninja sycophant.

Since Tsunade had accepted the post of Hokage, something he, Jiraiya would never be so foolish to do, her days of using her fists were probably over unless trouble came right to her. It was rather absurd that once a ninja was acknowledged to be the most powerful in the village, he, in this case she, was wrapped in special robes, guarded day and night and buried in bureaucracy so deeply that actually getting out there and using those skills was nearly impossible unless a demon came along and killed everyone standing between it and him.

Orochimaru had made it quite clear that he had only been bidding his time up until this point. Now that his attack on Konoha had begun, he wouldn't be retreating back into obscurity. To Jiraiya, it was time for the clash he had been awaiting his entire life, one he'd been torn between anticipating—the final showdown between himself and his lifelong rival—and dreading—the final battle of his life. Konoha lore dictated that the Toad Master could not defeat the Snake Master, but even if he couldn't win (Jiraiya wasn't willing to let a legend dictate his life), he was confidant this battle could at the very least end in a double death.

The Village Hidden in Sound masqueraded as an ally of Konoha for the first year since Orochimaru founded it, so while the Leaf ninja knew little about it, they did have some information, such as its location within one of the smaller countries north of Fire. Previous to the chuunin selection exam, Leaf ninja had no reason to go there outside of the initial treaty negotiations. Afterwards, their reasons were mission and war related, though few got past Orochimaru's subordinates.

The Uchiha boy had yet to provide any information, but nor had Tsunade asked for any. She knew she was taking a gamble with trusting him even a little. Jiraiya suspected Tsunade didn't want to lose this bet yet, so she kept the boy under a tight watch, asking no questions and receiving no lies. Any true information he did have would have been in the Leaf's favor, but it was likely he didn't know anything. Orochimaru would have used Uchiha's desire for power over all else to keep him in the dark, about the village and about his eventual plans. If Orochimaru had given Sasuke information, it would have consisted of lies and bait.

It took Jiraiya about two days to reach the gates of the Hidden in Sound. It would have been longer, but in his haste he made use of rivers and summoned toads in addition to Leaf ninja preferred roads, the trees.

Of all the sites that greeted him, Jiraiya did not expect to see the corpses of his village's enemies littering the ground outside the gates or the sentry that bore the forehead protector of Hidden in Sand. Jiraiya acknowledged the Sand also as an enemy who had faked an alliance with the Leaf, and was therefore prepared to fight.

"Jiraiya of the Leaf," the sentry acknowledged, not moving from his post.

The face of a ninja, no matter how powerful and respected, should not be so well-known, Jiraiya reflected. Unaware if what he said was the truth or not, Jiraiya replied, "The Fifth Hokage has not received any intelligence reports that the Sand would be staging an attack on the Sound."

"We released no information that could reach the ears of our enemies," the sentry stated. "The Kazekage is unaware of who outside of our village can be trusted and is skeptical of alliances."

"I should hope no village would ally themselves with the Sand for fear of betrayal," Jiraiya said. "The Leaf had been the Sand's most loyal supporter since your village was formed, and still the Sand tried to crush us."

The sentry nodded, much to Jiraiya's surprise. "The Third Kazekage is aware of the grave mistakes of his regrettable predecessor. Please," the sentry gestured to the gates of the Sound, "as a show of good faith, pass."

"Where can I find the Kazekage?"

"The morgue that lies against the west wall of the village."

"Thank you."

With that, Jiraiya passed through the gates. The village inside was nothing like Konoha. The buildings were sparse and did not give the impression that the village was a fully functioning town. Ninja could survive and train, but it didn't have the welcoming touches that his own did—no restaurants or little shops or even a school or hospital. No one had ever been born there, married there or enjoyed old age and retirement. People were tools and nothing more.

All the passerby enforced the notion that Sound had been thoroughly conquered by Sand. Most Sound nin were lying dead in the streets or alive, but roughly handed by Sand nin captors. Other Sand nin were involved in a clean-up effort and it looked to Jiraiya as though they intended to rebuild Sound into their own vision, rather than Orochimaru's.

Walking the streets, Jiraiya was forced to reconsider Konoha's Legend of the Three Masters. The masters were invincible to anyone within Hidden Leaf and bound by a balance of power among themselves, but were other villages immune? Was the destruction of Orochimaru, the worst and most powerful menace ever known to the Leaf, an entirely different undertaking to the Sand? Or was it the minds of Leaf ninja what made the Three Legends powerful? Perhaps the idea was so engraved within the psyches of Leaf ninja that the masters defeated them before they even began to fight. Jiraiya had wondered often in his youth where this legend came from and how bound by it he was. Some villages, he knew, tried to put a stop to Advanced Bloodlines, while Konoha embraced them. Maybe Konoha should direct some effort to putting a stop to creating reality from old dusty legends.

It seemed fitting to Jiraiya that Orochimaru's throne would be in a morgue, where he would sit surrounded by the body pairs of people he had killed in his quest for immortality. It was startlingly like Orochimaru's last few years in Konoha, when his home housed genin he'd killed. In wasn't quite so organized in the Sound morgue, though. Orochimaru had had more room to spread out, Jiraiya supposed.

Likewise, it seemed fitting that the Kazekage, who sat in Orochimaru's chair, was surrounded by the dead. Jiraiya had heard plenty from Naruto about the demon called Subakuno Gaara.

**Next—"He made my sister cry."**

Author Notes Productions Presents: How I Wrote Myself Into a Corner

When I started this story, I absolutely had to get rid of Orochimaru; that was a given from the beginning. The story just isn't about the characters getting stronger physically but maturing emotionally. Initially, I'd thought that the balance went ToadàSnakeàSnailàToad, when it went the other way. Therefore, Jiraiya couldn't kill Orochimaru like I'd wanted.

Then I started playing around with Itachi killing him. I was going to reveal that the reason Orochimaru was afraid of Itachi was that he was an Uchiha, who by leaving the village when Itachi was a little tyke, had escaped the massacre. He was afraid that Itachi would find out and come after him. Also, being an Uchiha that didn't have Sharingan would help with why he wanted Sasuke so badly.

I'd decided this was a total cop-out, but was going with it anyway when I started writing this chapter. Then two things happened: one, Gaara returned in the manga and two, I got my computer back. I'd been writing on my sister's computer since my own's hard drive was shot. In making the computer switch, I lost what I'd already written. Also, I'd started tossing around the idea of doing a similar story to _Things _dealing with Gaara, Temari and Kankuro. Kankuro's general lack of any interesting qualities and the too strong temptation to make Temari's portion just a romance between her and Shikamaru caused me to drop that idea. I still wanted to play around with Gaara-growth, though, so he has entered this story.

I don't know why I couldn't get anything done during the summer aside from one SasuSaku short. I think this fic may be an escape from school life for me, since my writer's block disappeared once the semester started. Anywho, thanks for waiting.


	9. Chapter Eight

Disclaimer: Nothing's changed.

Random Notes: The shot about Jiraiya calling himself noble is a reference to 'The Tale of Noble Jiraiya,' where the Jiraiya, Tsunade and Orochimaru's names and animal allegiances come from. Second, "Nenekiya" should be sounded out as "Nen-eki-ya," rather than "Ne-ne-ki-ya."

**Things That Cannot Be Fought**

For all Naruto knew, there were worse feelings in the world than being abandoned, but it was the bad feeling he knew best. An outsider might think hatred would be closer to his heart, but that was a feeling that had been directed to him, not one he felt himself. But abandonment, that he knew. Every time a mission was over and his teammates—former teammates—walked to their own homes, leaving him to go to an empty apartment, he felt it. When Sasuke, his best friend in the whole damn world—who he aimed his Rasengan at not because he felt hatred but because it was the only way he could say "You're my best friend in the whole damn world,"—left Konoha for the Sound village, he felt it. When Iruka left on a mission, Naruto might as well have been the only person left in the world. But somehow, when Jiraiya left, it was harder than all of that. Naruto guessed it was because the last time Jiraiya left, he'd taken Naruto with him. He had to ask himself, sitting on that same old swing outside of the Academy, where he always seemed to wind up when he was lonely and not in the mood for ramen, did he really expect Jiraiya to always take him along?

The answer should have been "No," considering Jiraiya was just some guy who came and went as he pleased and didn't owe Naruto anything. But really, the answer was "Yes," because Jiraiya was the only person who bothered taking Naruto on trips, or teaching him secrets, or sharing ice pops, or telling him about his dad. The answer should have been "No, because he steals my money and spends it on hookers and booze," not, "Yeah, since it all worked out anyway."

He didn't have Team Seven, not since they'd all gone their own ways. Even though they acted at the time like they would all see each other anyway, Naruto had no idea what Sasuke or Sakura or Kakashi were doing now.

He didn't have Iruka, since after the Academy closed, the teachers were regular chuunin, sent on missions just like anyone else.

He didn't have Konohamaru and company because they were spread out through Fire Country, alone and scared or alone and itching to fight.

He didn't have his father, because the Fourth Hokage died sealing a fox demon into his baby's belly.

He didn't have his mother, and he never even knew who she was in the first place.

He didn't have anybody, because Jiraiya apparently decided that pissing off Tsunade was more important than the kid he almost kinda took care of sometimes.

All he had was that same dream, so he said to himself, "When I'm Hokage, it'll be a rule that orphans have to be adopted and have someone who'll say "'Welcome home'…" A rule to make all the Narutos and Sasukes and Irukas of the world not so lonely, and the Kakashis couldn't say that they used to have important people, but they all died. This idea, Naruto filed underneath his promise to Neji about the Branch and Main House, since they both had that "completely implausible" thing going…

A year ago, Naruto would have forced himself out of this funk with some good old healthy vandalism. Now, he didn't want to paint snot coming out of the nose of the first man on the mountain—Tsunade's grandfather. He did, after all, wear the guy's necklace everyday. The second guy was the first guy's brother. That's no good. The third man was killed by Orochimaru, died protecting the village and doing lasting damage to a terrible enemy. It was the first funeral Naruto had ever gone to. And the fourth was his own father.

**---**

The how wasn't as difficult as one might think. Hidden Sound was a small village whose only real strength was in their founder and his closest subordinates. Hidden Sand was among the earliest and strongest of the shinobi villages, under the guidance of one of the five Shadows. Years ago, the government of Wind Country cut the funding of Hidden Sand and as a result, the previous Kazekage, Gaara's father, had severely spiked the level of competence expected from Sand ninja. The Sand nin had out numbered the Sounds and over powered the majority. The strongest became victims of Shukaku.

In short, legends respected by Konoha meant nothing to a demonic tanuki. As the nine-tailed fox was unable to be defeated by the masters of Toad, Snake and Snail, so was Shukaku. A demon could be contained by a ninja, but it could not be killed. As long as Shukaku had a vessel that was willing to use his power, then the only enemy who could stand in the boy's way would have to possess an even stronger demon. It was a balance of its own, Jiraiya realized. Naruto was no match for Orochimaru or any of the current masters, because he relied first on himself. Gaara was no match for Naruto, because the fox was more powerful than the tanuki when the blonde choose to use the other chakra in his possession. And Orochimaru could be killed by Gaara, because he used overwhelming force first, and thought about anything else second or not at all. Orochimaru could draw upon nothing outside of himself and what was inside could be contained by the sand.

It was the _why_ that bothered Jiraiya. Last he knew, the Sand had allied itself with Sound. Unless Sand was so accustomed to betrayal that they were capable of turning against their comrades yet again…

"Why?"

Gaara's heavily blackened eyes focused on Jiraiya for a moment, as though weighting what it would be worth to him to answer this old man's question.

"I hate him. I destroy what I hate."

The old man was not satisfied.

"My sister," the boy said finally, "is a strong kunoichi who understands what it is to be hurt. I never cared about her, or our brother, until Uzumaki Naruto defeated me. Orochimaru killed our father and he made my sister cry. Temari shouldn't be someone who cries. She's too strong for that."

Jiraiya smiled, placed an affectionate hand on the boy's head and said, "Then I have no business here." He withdrew his hand, "I came for Orochimaru as well."

Gaara snorted. "Be glad he's dead."

"I can't. I'm an old fool set in his ways and in Konoha, we're never glad when our teammates are killed."

"If you didn't come to kill him, why did you come at all?"

"There's an old story in Konoha that young people such as yourself never want to hear. They are too impatient, they don't care about history and they don't question the things they are taught to believe. Just about no one knows the story anymore, but they all know two things. The first," he held up one finger, "is that the one who walks away from the fight is the one who was not fighting for himself. The second," another finger, "is that the Toad never kills the Snake.

"It sounds like a contradiction, doesn't it? Orochimaru, the Snake, was looking out for no one but himself. I could have easily swept into become the hero who triumphs in his fight for his village. It's an idea I tried to plant in Orochimaru's head all these years, but at the same time, I've been shiftless. No friends, no family, no home, no loved ones. I've seen what death does to people. Thought it would be best not have anything to lose and no one would could lose me."

"In other words you came to die," Gaara interpreted, with no small amount of disgust in his voice. "Don't be a coward and call yourself noble."

"Didn't call myself either," Jiraiya reminded him. "I came thinking, 'fine, maybe this will kill me, but if I'm going down, I'm putting an end to that damn myth that's ruined my life by taking him down with me.'

"But," Jiraiya excused himself, and began to walk away, "who knows what would have happened? After all, I've got someplace to go back to now and I'm looking forward to it."

Gaara watched the old man go, stood up from the dead man's throne and ran off to look for his brother and sister.

---

For all her former dedication to anything found in a text book, Sakura had to admit, once she was face to face with one, that she knew _nothing_ about slugs. Naruto and Sasuke had it easy; you look at a toad or a snake, you know where its eyes are and where its mouth is. Gastropods were a bit harder.

She'd put everything she had left into one final attempt for the day, lost her balance and fell over, landing on her rump. And there, on Sakura's knee, not sitting or standing of anything she could relate to, was a slug. She thought it might be staring back at her, but then it occurred to her that she had no idea where a slug's eyes were.

Still, she gave the slug a shakey smile and said, "Nice to meet you."

"Hi," the slug replied, sounding somewhat like a shy little boy with a stuffy nose. "My name's Nenekiya."

"I'm Sakura," she replied, growing more confident and more aware of how sticky and slimy her knee felt.

"I like cherries…"

"Well," Sakura said, glancing behind her at Tsunade, who sat at her desk appearing as though she was trying very hard not to laugh, "since you are my very first summon, I think that calls for a treat." For the whole walk from the Hokage's office to the tea shop, Nenekiya rode on Sakura's shoulder. She told herself that it was because she was proud that she'd been able to summon him and wanted to show her skill off, but she couldn't entirely deny that she didn't want his slime on her skin again, even after he'd bragged about the healing properties of his mucus. (Being so used to Naruto and Sasuke, who either had extremely large egos or were extremely good at faking it, Sakura didn't recognize that the young slug just wanted her to like him.)

"I don't know if they have cherries," Sakura was saying as the drapes spelling out 'Dango' came into view, "but they might have something cherry-flavored. But anyway, you like sweets, too, don't you?"

The reply she heard, "I don't eat sweets," came not from Nenekiya, but from one Uchiha Sasuke, who was crammed into a booth with Anko next to him and Kakashi sitting across. Sakura caught Kakashi's eye and he motioned for her to sit with them. After a brief "Hi!" and merry wave, Anko went back to the grueling task of trying to force something overloaded with sugar down the boy's throat.

A waitress, noting that a fourth person had joined table set a ceramic glass of green tea down for Sakura, though didn't ask for an order. The group didn't seem aware of her.

Sasuke had finally answered one of Anko's whines with, "I'm hypoglycemic."

Sakura raised an eyebrow. "Hypoglycemic means you have to eat sugar. You mean diabetic, which you're not, since you've never taken insulin shots on long missions. Nice try, though." Sasuke glared at her. People usually bought that one. She stuck her tongue out. He rolled his eyes and turned away.

When the waitress came back, Sakura asked for a full menu, since she didn't know what to order for Nenekiya. Congratulations were in order, as he was Sakura's first summon. Kakashi mentioned in an off-handed manner that both Sasuke and Sakura had a long way to go before they caught up with Naruto's ability. Sasuke seemed to pretend not to hear him, while Sakura complained that it wasn't fair to compare their summons with Naruto's, since he'd been doing it for so much longer.

But talking about Naruto only reminded them that he wasn't there. This wasn't sitting at the Ichiraku as Team Seven or a quick lunch on the road during a mission. No higher force was telling them they had to be a group anymore, though. Spending time with two friends didn't necessarily mean you had to spend time with all of them at once. Later, Sakura decided, she'd set up a group thing with the old Team Seven. At the moment, she was on the standing on the edge of the new team Uchiha, watching two more people who'd forced themselves into Sasuke's life, trading teasing like he was their little brother. She smiled. For all he seemed angry and indignant, for a while now, he'd seemed a little happy, too.

---

It was a stupid, stupid question, but for the five days since Jiraiya had been gone, he was one Naruto knew he ought to ask.

"Will you be my dad?"

The old man, who'd returned from the Sound village with an old weight lifted off his shoulders and a new one settled there, said, "No."

"I knew your father and I wouldn't want to take his place. I want you to know what kind of man he was and do him proud. Walk your own path, without someone holding your hand and telling you right from wrong, because you already know that, and everything else you'll need to grow to be a good man. It's too late now for someone to come in and try to be a parent. You can't forge the bonds between a child and father overnight.

"I'm too old anyway. I'd make a better grandpa."

Naruto hugged him.

"Now! Let's see if we can find you a nice young grandma!"

**End.**


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